CREE EcoSmart E26 9.5-Watt (65W) LED Down light Light Bulb $24.97 or less (Back in Northern California Home Depot!!)

A couple of notes from my experience:

-Don't forget to use a Lowes 10% off coupon. They are readily available on eBay for ~$1. You can call in after you make an online purchase and they will adjust the total for you.

-You can get 3% cash back by linking through a fatwallet.com.

-To save further, you can buy a HD gift card from PlasticJungle to save another 7%.

-I'm using these with a regular 600W dimmer that I already had. So far, it works great, no issues. I have at least 4 bulbs on each dimmer. I read reviews that said these might not work well with 1000W dimmers.

-These are brighter IMHO than the 65W bulbs they replaced. The color is the same, except when dimming. IMHO these LED's look better dimmed than the incandescent which tends to turn really yellow when dimmed.

-Wife approved these.... finally. After years of trying different CFL's that were 'ugly' light, these finally passed the test.

-This is made with CREE technology. This is the company you want to get your LED's from. These have the top reviews on consumer reports for LED lights.

-In the bay area, I have calculated that I pay .22 per kwh on average. My electricity bill is usually $130-$200 a month. These lights will pay me back about $2/month per light assuming they are used an average of 6 hours a day. I should re-coup my investment in 1 year on electricity alone. After that, it is all savings. If you are going from CFL to this, you're not going to save much on electricity most likely.

-These lights will 'seal' your can. I have old canned lighting that is not insulated. They have holes in the can on the top and sides that acts like a chimney for heat in winter and allows hot air from the attic into my house in the summer. Now it is sealed. I also used a bit of weatherstripping to be sure. I can also now go into the attic and put insulation over these lights. Currently there is no insulation because mine are not the newer sealed design, so insulation was a safety hazard due to heat of incandescent. So, in addition to the electricity savings to run the lights, I'm going to save on heating and AC because I can finally insulate the area above and around these lights. Win/Win.

To me, these are the LED lights everyone has been waiting for. Yes it is possible they could get cheaper over time, but why wait at the $25 price point. Save $2/month now!

BTW, California has really expensive power once you get off the base tier. In other states, power might not cost as much, making the payback a bit longer.